1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mobile communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to mobile entertainment.
2. Background Art
Mobile navigational devices, such as handheld global positioning system (GPS) receivers and vehicle navigation systems, for example, have made location finding and reliable route planning easier to perform than ever before. Moreover, location finding capabilities are increasingly finding their way onto common mobile devices, such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), making those navigational features widely available to consumers. Whether, for instance, seeking to identify a present location, or selecting a route to a desired destination, users of mobile devices having navigational functionality may now utilize those advantages to make getting around easier, less stressful, and even safer than in the past.
Although capable of providing substantially continuous monitoring of location or route progression, navigational devices are typically utilized primarily for travel planning, and then almost only when there is uncertainty as to a location or route. For example, during an automobile trip in which the driver of a car equipped with a navigation system transports several passengers to a familiar destination, the navigation system may not be utilized at all. Even when the destination is unfamiliar, the navigation system may be used by the driver, but is unlikely to be utilized by the vehicle passengers.
Travel can be tedious, however, and the need to provide travelers with diversion and entertainment during a trip has long been recognized. This may be particularly true for lengthy road trips, or for travel involving delays due to traffic congestion, for example. In the past, the tedium of travel has been alleviated through various means. First radio, then media devices such as cassette, 8-track, and CD players, followed more recently by satellite radio, have all been implemented to alleviate the stresses and frustrations of vehicular travel.
The tedium of travel can exact an especially high toll on the patience and enthusiasm of children, who may be traveling along a route over which they have no control, to a destination with which they are unfamiliar. The frustrations and unhappiness suffered by children during travel are readily transferred to their parents, who may have selected a particular route or destination, during a family vacation for example, expressly to provide their children with an enjoyable and intellectually broadening experience. In an effort to provide children passengers with a more engaging form of entertainment and diversion than the simple audio stimulation provided by radio and the other forms of entertainment described previously, many vehicles are now also equipped with DVD players to provide additional visual entertainment.
Unfortunately, the forms of entertainment traditionally provided to relieve the unpleasant aspects of travel may be seen to emphasize distraction from that unpleasantness, rather than diversion through engagement in the positive aspects of a particular trip. While this approach may be largely unobjectionable for certain types of travel, a routine commute for example, it may do a disservice when a route, a destination, or points of interest along the way provide some of the motivation for the trip itself. For the family vacation road trip mentioned earlier, for example, entertainment providing diversion from the mundane aspects of the trip, that at the same time immerses the travelers in the intellectually broadening details of locations along the travel route, would be desirable.